Supply and demand??????? How about this....if you have enough money to pay for what they are demanding you can buy all the'supply' you want. Ain't no shortage, never was. This is mass marketing folks plain and simple. Someone mentioned the poor oil economy in the 80s, in the 70s when the big "shortage" started and the long lines at the pumps etc it was all BS then and is now again. In the 70s I worked for the RR and we recieved an embargo notice to not bill any tank cars of petroleum to Mexico because the border was flooded with them and the Mexicans didn't have enough locomotive power to pull them across the border, for hiding no doubt. And another thing they are getting a lot of mileage (pun) of not having enough refineries the last few yrs to meet the demand. The big bucks all oil companies have is more than enough to build a refinery once a week and write it off as a capital investment. EPA.....when pigs fly as the man in CA said. This country runs on nothing but big business money and all the politicans are on the payroll.
That's about 2 bits worth. Oh ya forgot, our congress forgave the oil company in Alaska the bill for the crude they are pumping. They get it free guys. Poor oil barons.